pedagogy and practice: teaching and learning in...

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Pedagogy and Practice: Teaching and Learning in Secondary Schools

Unit 16: Leading in learning

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Curriculum andStandards

Senior leaders,subject leaders and teachers insecondary schoolsStatus: Recommended

Date of issue: 09-2004

Ref: DfES 0439-2004 G

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Pedagogy and Practice:Teaching and Learning inSecondary Schools


Key Stage 3 National Strategy Pedagogy and practiceUnit 16: Leading in learning

© Crown copyright 2004DfES 0439-2004

How to use this study guide

Leading in Learning refers to a systematic programme for teaching the five NationalCurriculum thinking skills. It has been developed as part of the Key Stage 3Strategy’s support for whole-school improvement, and will be available to schoolsfrom February 2005. This study unit draws on the Leading in Learning approach.The techniques suggested are tried and tested; they draw on both academicresearch and the experience of practising teachers.

By working through this guide, you can build your teaching repertoire step by step,starting with strategies that are easy to implement and moving on to those that willhelp pupils develop their skills still further. The unit contains ‘reflections’, to helpyou reflect on an idea or on your own practice, as well as practical tips and tasksto help you consider advice or try out strategies in your classroom. There are casestudies to exemplify particular points, a summary of the research and somesuggestions for ‘next steps’ and further reading. The final page invites you toreflect on the material and to set your personal targets for the future.

You can work through this unit in a number of ways:

• Start small; choose one class to work with. Ask another teacher to help bytalking through what you intend to do and to act as a mentor.

• Work with another teacher or group of teachers who teach the same class.Work together on developing your approach to teaching thinking skills. After three weeks compare notes. Discuss which strategies are the most effectiveand why.

• Find someone to pair up with and team-teach. Design the tasks together anddivide the role of teacher in the lesson between you.

• Work with a small group of teacher-researchers within your school. Use theguide to help you focus your work as a professional learning community.Record successes in your CPD portfolio.

• Identify sections of the unit that are particularly relevant to you and focus onthose.

There is space in this study guide for you to write notes and responses to some ofthe questions, but you may also find it helpful to keep a notebook handy. For sometasks, you might want to make an audio recording or video of yourself in action soyou can review your work more easily. You could add this, along with any othernotes and planning that you do as part of your work on this unit, to your CPDportfolio.

The evidence of work you gather in your portfolio could count as points towardsaccreditation of an MA, or could support your application for membership of aprofessional body, such as the General Teaching Council of England (GTCE). Itcould also be used to support an application to reach threshold or Advanced SkillsTeacher status.

Leading in learning

ContentsIntroduction 1

1 Making a start 3

2 What is meant by teaching thinking skills? 4

3 Characteristics of higher-order thinking lessons 6

4 National Curriculum thinking skills 7

5 Improving planning and teaching of thinking skills lessons 13

6 Evaluating impact 16

7 Progression 18

Summary of research 20

Next steps 22

Setting future targets 24

IntroductionMost teachers would support the idea that pupils should leave school not only withgood examination results to open the gates to employment or higher education,but also equipped to be well-motivated learners. As such they would be able to:

• organise themselves;

• set goals or make plans;

• identify, find and use resources and sources of help;

• collect and analyse information;

• generate ideas;

• reach conclusions or produce a product;

• review or evaluate the outcome.

Through this process they would be able to plan, monitor progress, refocus wherenecessary and reflect on the experience. In new learning episodes they would beusing knowledge from past learning and they would have confidence in themselves,their ability to work with others and a thirst for learning. This capacity for lifelonglearning would not only characterise their education and work-life but pervade theirsocial and family life. Not many pupils attain this profile.

1 | Key Stage 3 National Strategy | Pedagogy and practiceUnit 16: Leading in learning


Common issues

Recent studies show that pupils in England tend to see education in very utilitarianterms – you go to school to get qualifications in order to get a job or go to collegeor university. Pupils don’t have a clear grasp of learning as a process that can bedeveloped and applied.

Part of the problem is a lack of a precise, common language for consideringthinking skills and learning capabilities, which are important to all subjects. Evenwhere teachers are aware of the problem, most feel that they have not got time toaddress it because of content that has to be ‘got through’. The curriculumbecomes, therefore, the experience of ‘doing’ 11 or more independent subjectswhich do not add up to a coherent whole. Some consequences of this are asfollows.

• Plenaries are rushed in the pursuit of coverage and the final plenary is usuallyreported to be the weakest part of common lesson structures. As the plenary isthe opportunity to draw out more general learning, its weakness often meansthat subject content remains the dominant theme of lessons.

• Pupils do not readily make connections between lessons (within or acrosssubjects) or transfer their learning.

• Pupils are placed in different groupings for different subjects with differentteachers, and therefore do not build up coherent relationships or norms as aclass and do not have common learning experiences upon which they can alldraw.

Resolving the issues

In the most general terms many schools have made attempts to tackle theseproblems. Often whole-school initiatives related to learning are an expression ofsuch concern. So projects which focus on accelerated learning, learning styles,CASE (Cognitive Acceleration through Science Education) and building learningpower address such issues. The KS3 Learning Challenge (Ref. DfES 0088-2004) isalso relevant to these concerns.

It is important that a structure is used to bring coherence to the curriculum and thatthis is communicated to pupils.

Teaching with a high level of challenge is a vital ingredient. Learning that demandshigher-order skills, problem solving, collaborative learning, critical and creativethinking is necessary to draw out significant transferable skills. It is in such teachingthat one is likely to find the threads that connect subjects.

The teaching of plenaries needs to be improved. Pupils have to develop the abilityto think and talk about learning so that they are aware of not only what they havelearned but also how they have learned it. This cannot be done every lesson but itneeds to be a common feature of each pupil’s learning career.

Perhaps, above all, teachers benefit from support at the whole-school level thathelps them develop their knowledge and practice through:

• planning lessons collaboratively;

• watching others teach;



• being coached;

• gaining access to theoretical ideas which can help them understand anddevelop their practice.

1 Making a startThis section contains two tasks that can done in either order. They are valuablebecause they can provide some first-hand experience which will help in buildingfurther understanding in the rest of the unit. From the response that you get frompupils you can begin to judge whether there are already important foundations inthe school or whether you are starting from scratch.



Task 1Reflecting on your school 20 minutes

Do you recognise these issues in your school?

How are they being addressed?

Sometimes people reinvent the wheel. To avoid this:

• informally ask around to find out which departments or individual teachers areinterested in teaching thinking skills and which have developed experienceand expertise;

• more formally consult senior managers with responsibilities such asCurriculum, Teaching and Learning, and Professional Development to build upa profile of interest and expertise in thinking skills across the whole staff. Don’tmake too many assumptions as there may be Newly Qualified Teachers orteachers nearing retirement who should be included.

Task 2Getting the pupil perspective 30 minutes

Much of the research evidence suggests that pupils do not develop a roundedview of what schools and education are for.

Select a class, perhaps in Y7 or Y9, and interview a small group (3–4) of pupilscentred on the question:

What do you learn in school?

Their first response will probably be a list of subjects. If pressed further they maymention particular topics and possibly issues raised by PSHE, assemblies andextra-curricular activities. With more probing they might begin to discuss howthey learn. Some further questions that might help are:

In what subjects do you learn the most?

Do you learn anything about how you learn?

Are there any connections between what you learn in different subjects?

Task continues

2 What is meant by teaching thinking skills?There is a variety of approaches to teaching thinking skills that can be broadlyrelated to the type of thinking that is being focused on.

1 General thinking ability or information-processing capacity (this shouldnot be equated to information processing as a skill): This is the level targeted byCASE (Cognitive Acceleration through Science Education) and CAME (CognitiveAcceleration in Mathematics Education). Both aim to enable pupils to handlemore complex thinking or ‘formal operations’.



If you need to dig hard to get to this layer, and if they find it hard to talk about itbecause of a lack of language or familiarity with the topic, then the more likely itis that they have not been affected by ‘teaching thinking’ approaches.

It is also possible that they might have some ‘buzz’ words such as Visual,Auditory and Kinaesthetic Learning and different kinds of intelligence. In this casesee if anything lies behind it.

At this point you may wish to watch video sequence 3a, in which pupils discusswhat helps them to learn (unit 3) and video sequence 19a, in which pupils andteachers talk about learning styles (unit19).

Task 3An early classroom experiment 1 hour

If you do not have any experience of teaching thinking skills then you might trythis idea.

Odd One Out is a very simple strategy. Provide pupils with a series of ‘sets’ ofthree or four important words in the topic you are teaching. Ask them to choosethe Odd One Out. Emphasise three things:

• they must have a reason for their choice;

• in addition to saying why one is different they must also say what the othershave in common;

• their answers should relate to understanding the topic – this helps avoidtangential answers such as ‘the Odd One Out has four letters and the othershave six’.

Make some of the later sets more open or ambiguous so that pupils mightgenerate alternative answers. In some subjects you might prefer to usephotographs, pictures, sounds/music or actions instead of words.

Appropriate objectives for such an activity might relate to understandingimportant words, concepts or terminology in a topic.

2 Specific thinking abilities: This is the approach addressed in the five NationalCurriculum thinking skills. This approach is dependent on developing reasoning,creative thinking and evaluation through collaborative work and exploratory talk.The thinking that is generated by the talk between pupils gradually becomesinternalised by the individual, so that the group’s collective thinking becomestheir own. This process is greatly assisted if thinking and learning are identified,labelled and explored. This approach is strongly influenced by the work of theRussian researcher Vygotsky.

3 Metacognition: This can broadly be described as ‘thinking about thinking’ andbeing critical in the ability to plan, monitor and regulate thinking processes. Thisapproach is part of the first, builds the second and requires that pupilsperiodically stand back from their work. Metacognition is highly dependent ondeveloping a language about thinking and is central to the process of transferof learning (see unit 2 Teaching models).

These approaches are not competing theories: in fact they can complement oneanother extremely well. This unit and the Leading in Learning initiative focus on thefive National Curriculum specific thinking skills and metacognition to encouragetransfer. Pupils’ disposition and attitudes towards learning are likely to be affectedand these will probably be the overt signs of the impact of developing thinkingskills.

Although not an approach to teaching thinking skills, it is extremely important toconsider pupils’ motivation and theories about themselves. For example, CarolDweck (an American academic) distinguishes pupils who have an entity theoryabout intelligence/ability from those with an incremental theory. Entity theorysuggests that you believe that you are born with a fixed amount of intelligence; sotaking risks with hard open tasks has no pay-off as you risk showing that you arenot as clever as you believe. Incremental theory implies that you can developintelligence; so open challenging tasks offer the chance to become a better learner.Making the teaching of thinking skills work is bound up with making pupils believethat they are capable learners and that it is ‘cool’ to learn. The good news is thatpupils can change their theory about intelligence.



Task 4Reflecting on pupils’ theories about themselves 15 minutes

Consider the same class as in task 3, or a class you have taught some thinkinglessons to. Which pupils appeared most at home with the task and relished thechallenge (incremental theorists)? Which pupils seemed most anxious – worriedabout getting the right answer or uncertain of the purpose of the task (entitytheorists)?

3 Characteristics of higher-order thinkinglessons

We think nearly all of the time. So, in a sense, all lessons could be consideredthinking lessons, but this misses the point.

So what is different about thinking skills lessons?

They focus deliberately on higher-order thinking. Bloom’s taxonomy (see unit 5Starters and plenaries, appendix 1) identifies six levels of thinking: knowledge,comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation. The last three areregarded as more complex and demanding.

For teachers, one of the difficulties in teaching thinking skills is that it is moredifficult to specify learning. This is because in such open learning contexts theremay be a wide variety of learning outcomes. None the less it is important to haveobjectives and to pursue a focus whilst remembering that learning outcomes maybe more diverse. In these circumstances the plenary takes on special importance interms of drawing out learning – a process sometimes referred to as debriefing.

Lauren Resnick (1987) has characterised higher-order thinking as follows:

• higher-order thinking is not routine – your planned actions cannot be totallyspecified in advance;

• higher-order thinking tends to be complex – the total path is not visible(mentally speaking) from any single vantage point;

• higher-order thinking often yields multiple solutions, each with costs andbenefits, rather than unique solutions;

• higher-order thinking involves nuanced judgements and interpretation;

• higher-order thinking involves the application of multiple criteria whichsometimes conflict with one another;

• higher-order thinking involves uncertainty – not everything that is relevant to thetask at hand is known;

• higher-order thinking involves self-regulation of the thinking process – this doesnot occur when someone else tells you what to do at every step;

• higher-order thinking involves imposing meaning or finding structure in apparentdisorder;

• higher-order thinking is effortful – there is considerable mental work involved inthe kinds of thinking and judgements required.

Extract from Education and learning to think, Resnick, Lauren © 1987 NationalAcademy of Sciences. Reprinted courtesy of the National Academies Press,Washington, D.C.

This is a generalised description. To help develop it, a parallel can be drawn withone of those occasions in adult life that is reputed to be highly stressful – movinghouse (task 5). To cope with such an event, it can be argued, you need higher-order thinking.



4 National Curriculum thinking skillsThe National Curriculum provides a framework of five thinking skills. These are:

• Information-processing skills: These enable pupils to locate and collectrelevant information; to sort, classify, sequence, compare and contrast; and toanalyse part/whole relationships.

• Reasoning skills: These enable pupils to give reasons for opinions andactions, to draw inferences and make deductions, to use precise language toexplain what they think, and to make judgements and decisions informed byreasons or evidence.



Task 5Understanding higher-order thinking 10 minutes

Relate this description of the process of buying a new house to thecharacteristics of higher-order thinking and then consider the review questions atthe end.

When you buy a new house you cannot make the decision in a simple routinesequence, like a formula. You don’t know how things will turn out becauseyou don’t know which houses are available, whether you can sell your own orborrow enough money, whether other people will make higher bids or whetherthe houses have bad survey reports. As you consider possible houses all thefront runners have pros and cons, none is perfect. So you have to startdeciding priorities (multiple solutions and fine judgements). Different membersof the family have different opinions (multiple criteria). Just when you think youhave got the right house, someone else makes a higher offer or your buyerfalls through (uncertainty). You can take advice but you have to get involved,stay calm and fairly rational, and think things through (self-regulation). Youhave to be really clear about what you are doing, how and why you are doingit, and how it will be achieved (imposing meaning). This is all effortful, to thepoint of being stressful.

Part of the importance of this kind of activity is that it reminds us that educationis a preparation for life and pupils will face such situations. As educators we havethe ambition to prepare them for such exertions. Some lessons need to becomplex, demanding and even have elements of confusion.

Review questions

1 When you have tried thinking skills lessons, such as Odd One Out in task 3, have pupils started to show signs of higher-order thinking? Are theylooking for different solutions, using a variety of criteria, struggling to findmeaning, thinking things through and making a real effort?

2 If the answer is generally ‘yes’, can you identify how this could be furtherimproved, perhaps through structuring the task so that there are moreacceptable solutions? If the answer is generally ‘no’, discuss your difficultieswith a colleague.

• Enquiry skills: These enable pupils to ask questions, to pose and defineproblems, to plan what to do and how to research, to predict outcomes andanticipate consequences, and to test conclusions and improve ideas.

• Creative thinking skills: These enable pupils to generate and extend ideas, tosuggest hypotheses, to apply imagination, and to look for alternative innovativeoutcomes.

• Evaluation skills: These enable pupils to evaluate information; to judge thevalue of what they read, hear and do; to develop criteria for judging the value oftheir own and others’ work or ideas; and to have confidence in theirjudgements.

National Curriculum thinking skills



Task 6Relating National Curriculum thinking skills 45 minutesto your subject at GCSE

The components of the five National Curriculum thinking skills are set out in thetable below.

Have some recent GCSE papers and your current GCSE coursework tasks infront of you. Identify 5–10 of the skills on the basis of their importance to GCSEin your subject and note in the right-hand column where and why they areimportant to attainment.

National Curriculum thinking skills Relevance to your subject

Information processing

Collect material

Sort and classify

Sequence

Compare and contrast

Analyse parts and wholes

Reasoning

Give reasons

Make inferences and deductions

Explain

Make decisions

Table continues

Infusing thinking skills into Key Stages 3 and 4

In the current context in England, infusion of teaching thinking into subject teachingpromises to be the most effective model of implementation. There are a number ofways in which this can be approached:

• using the Cognitive Acceleration through Science Education (CASE) orCognitive Acceleration in Mathematics Education (CAME) programmesintegrates the major principles of teaching thinking into lessons; for example,challenge (or cognitive conflict), collaborative talk and metacognition(www.kcl.ac.uk/kings_college/depsta/education/teaching/CASE.html andwww.kcl.ac.uk/depsta/education/came.html) (see also unit 2, section 2);

• adopting an approach such as Philosophy for Children, which is an excellentvehicle for promoting questioning, listening, collaboration and reasoning, andvery valuable in English and the humanities subjects (www.sapere.net);

• using teaching ‘strategies’ as found in the Leading in Learning initiative, such asReading images, Summarising, Analogies, and Audience and Purpose. Withthis approach it is important to maintain a focus on the five National Curriculumthinking skills.



Enquiry

Ask questions

Pose problems

Plan what to do

Predict outcomes

Improve ideas

Creative thinking

Generate and extend ideas

Hypothesise

Look for alternatives

Apply imagination

Evaluation

Develop criteria

Weigh information



Leading in Learning example

The following is an abridged version of one of the ten ‘strategies’ offered in theLeading in Learning whole-school initiative.

Reading images

This very basic but powerful technique involves providing pupils with a photographor other visual image (reproduced with a white border) as a source of informationand asking them to annotate or label it. They are asked to make links to what theyalready know, whether from previous work or general knowledge, and shouldsuggest a title or overall heading for the image. There are variations around thisbasic approach. As with other thinking strategies, it is important for pupils toexplain their thinking to others.

Rationale

We live in a highly visual society saturated with educational, work and leisureimages. This strategy aims to develop pupils’ visual literacy so that they are betterequipped to decode this type of information. There can be a pay-off on manylevels:

• working with visual information is a gateway to creativity and can boost the self-esteem of pupils who are struggling with literacy;

• pupils with visual learning preferences can learn more effectively throughimages of various kinds;

• in examinations for many subjects, information is often provided as diagrams,photographs, pictures and maps;

• there is great joy in being able to make sense of visual information.

The teacher’s role is to get pupils to look harder, find patterns, make inferences andlook for connections.

National Curriculum thinking skills addressed

Reading images is strong for:

• information processing in terms of analysing part/whole relationships;

• reasoning skills, particularly explaining thinking, giving reasons for opinions,drawing inferences and making deductions;

• creative thinking, including suggesting hypotheses and applying imagination.

Task 7Can you improve your planning? 30 minutes

As you go through the following Leading in Learning abridged example, reflect oneither your existing experience or your trial of the Odd One Out strategy (task 3). What aspects or headings are potentially helpful in thinking about yourplanning for future lessons?



Creating the right level of challenge

To support lower-achieving pupils you might:

• model the process of making links and annotations using an OHP, projector orinteractive whiteboard, centred on questions such as ‘What can we see here?’,‘What is happening here?’ and ‘What does this image show or suggest?’;

• place a ‘grid’ on a clear acetate sheet over the image and ask them to ‘read’ itsquare by square. This can support the analysis of part/whole relationships;

• create mixed-ability pairings to work collaboratively;

• encourage pupils to use questions such as ‘Who are these people?’, ‘Wherehave they come from?’, ‘What are they doing?’, ‘Why are they doing this?’ and‘When is this happening?’. This is termed using the 5Ws – using Who, What,Where, Why and When – as question stems.

To challenge higher-achieving pupils you can:

• encourage them to move beyond what they can actually see, to what it impliesor means, thus making more abstract or generalised links;

• ask groups to make a case for something in the image – different groups ofpupils can be given different or opposing cases;

• ask groups to put a number of images in a time or causal sequence.

Identifying successful thinking

Levels of response or staged success criteria can be used to support you in short-and medium-term planning for progression.

• Connections are made but are largely unsubstantiated or inaccurate.

• One or two relevant connections are made relating to visible features in theimage, but there are problems in explaining the connection. Cannot produce areasoned title.

• Three or more direct connections are made relating to visible features in theimage, but there are still weaknesses in explaining the connections. Difficulty inproducing a title.

• A number of relevant connections are made and explained adequately withsome linkage between the points. Able to generate a justifiable title or heading.Often able to describe basic processes used.

• Inferences or deductions are made beyond the direct connections. Use is madeof wider knowledge, and some connections are likely to use higher-order orabstract concepts and thus be more generalised. May generate alternativeexplanations or interpretations. Can describe processes used in some detail.

• Can do all of the above but also shows an awareness of an overall strategy tocomplete the task, i.e. has gone from ‘this is how I did the task’ to a moregeneralised ‘this is how you tackle tasks like this’.

In progressing through these levels pupils would also be improving their skills inanalysing part/whole relationships, and asking questions. In certain contexts theymight also develop the skills of suggesting hypotheses and applying imagination.



Troubleshooting

Metacognitive plenaries

Questioning for metacognition helps pupils to unpack what and how they havelearned and what they might do with this learning. The following sequence ofgeneric questions can be used to encourage pupils to take a metacognitiveapproach to reading images.

Possible difficulties Possible solutions

Pupils come to this ‘cold’ Model the process, encouraging early efforts andand don’t know where to stressing that there is no one right answerstart

Pupils focus only on visible Scan systematically and focus on visible featuresfeatures and are unable to using the 5W strategy (who, what, where, why,make more abstract when) to take them beyond the visiblegeneralised links

Pupils do not justify the Pupils need to be pressed both in their groupslinks they make and in the whole-class discussion to justify the

connection they make with the picture

Pupils run out of steam Start with pairs working together and then put quickly after finding two pairs together to make fours which exchange or three links connections – this creates a bit of peer pressure

Pupils can be timid, if they This can be modelled by the teacher, who might are unused to such make a vague connection and ask pupils whetherapproaches, in either enough had been said and invite them to ask challenging or extending questions for clarification etc.connections made by others

Type of question Generic teacher questions

A warm-up question ‘What connections have you made?’

Reflective – general ‘How did you do it?’

Reflective – specific ‘What makes a good connection?’

Lead-in question ‘What is your title?’

Reasoning question ‘Why that title?’

Challenge/ ‘Do you prefer or like anyone else’s title? Why?’reasoning question

Application question ‘Why is being able to “read” an image, picture or real-life scene important?’

Bridging scenarios

Stories, prompts, analogies and scenarios should be used to encourage pupils tomake connections, generalise and see a bigger picture with regard to the value ofbeing able to read images. They can be used at either the beginning or the end oflessons. They are vital to encouraging pupils to respond to application questionslike the one above. Bridging scenario examples include:

• This is like the programmes that you see on TV, where a detective visits a crimescene and looks carefully around, at photographs, things that tell them aboutthe person, things that are out of place and don’t make sense, using visualclues to build up a picture.

• If you ever watch a builder sizing up a repair or extension job, a doctorexamining a new patient, a clothes consultant giving the ‘once-over’ to a client,they all look at the ‘problem’ from all angles, looking for all the tell-tale signs,sizing up the job, making connections – they are reading the visual image.

• There are art experts who can look at a painting and can tell you not only whatthe painting is about but how it connects to the time and place it was paintedand the ideas and motivation of the artist. For example, they might say that thepriest in the background represents the power of the church and the dogcurled up at his feet is the same as the one the artist had as a boy.

The important point is about the difference between looking and seeing. Twopeople can look at something but they see different things because one is able tomake more connections and therefore to make more sense of what they see.P

5 Improving planning and teaching of thinkingskills lessons

In the previous section the Leading in Learning example related to ‘reading images’had seven headings which can be used in general planning of thinking skillslessons. However, it is important that you develop a clear model of stages inthinking skills lessons as a basis for improving practice.

The launch

The notion of a launch is an analogy. Consider a space travel vehicle. It needs arocket to launch it so that it can overcome gravity, get through the Earth’satmosphere and get headed on the right course. So it is with pupils on someoccasions. They need the boost of the rocket to get them off the ground – in thiscase thinking! They need some help to get through the first hard, dangerous bitwhere they are dealing with the atmosphere and gravity. Once in space they cantravel under their own power. But before they get there they will need theirbearings, so:

• help pupils see the relevance or interest in the forthcoming task;

• outline what you are looking for in terms of learning behaviour;

• get pupils tuned to the type of thinking and effort required, which may requiremodelling;

• clarify any terms, concepts or procedures that may be required.



There will be some distinctive features to the launch of a thinking skills lesson.

• Objectives will focus on the thinking and learning in which pupils will beengaged.

• There is a strong emphasis on collaborative working, sharing ideas and talktogether. You might suggest that they are sharing their brains to produce betterideas and thinking.

• Connections to other subjects or contexts are stressed, ‘bridging scenarios’.You might ask pupils to consider what they already know that will help themwith the task that they have been set.

The middle or group-work phase of a thinking skills lesson

In the middle phase of the lesson pupils should be working in groups on thechallenging open task that has been set. Their thinking is expressed in the talk thattakes place. This talk helps stimulate further higher-order thinking. Part of thepurpose of the plenary is to review and rehearse learning and therefore the middlephase of the lesson is an opportunity to eavesdrop on pupils’ thinking and talking.If you do this you can ensure that this thinking is shared more widely in the plenaryand greater learning is possible.

• A part of your role during the group-work phase is to administer and move thetask on. Depending on the strategy this might be managing timing, handing outblank cards, etc.

• Watch and listen to groups as much as possible. Reflect on your questions forthe plenary, making notes on anything that may be useful.

• If you need to intervene in a group which is really stuck:

– encourage the group to discuss their own difficulties to see if they can bemore self-reliant and less helpless;

– encourage evaluation and reflection on progress and methods, so thatideas are refined and improved.

• On occasions, you may want to draw the class together in order to move theircollective thinking on a stage. However, do not allow this to disturb the flow ofgroup discussion or leave you short of time for the final plenary.



Task 8Helping pupils make connections 15 minutes

For a particular lesson tell the pupils a short story, real or imaginary, aboutyourself, friends, family or someone famous, that illustrates the relevance of theobjective or aim of a lesson – it does not have to be a thinking skills lesson.Pupils love stories – so get them hooked but don’t ramble on. You can think of itas being like a mini-fable that conveys an important message.

Practical tip

If pupils fail to see the point of focusing on a thinking skill, offer them a real-life application and perhaps ask them if they can think of another.

From a teaching perspective, distinctive features of the group-work phase are:

• eavesdropping on discussion in the groups in order to capture pupils’ thinkingto inform the plenary;

• keeping interventions minimal, because it is important to allow pupils to learnfrom struggling (collaboratively) with the task or problem.

The plenary

The plenary is a vital part of every thinking skills lesson but is usually reported to bethe most difficult phase. Pupils have to develop the ability to think and talk aboutlearning so that they are aware of not only what they have learned but also howthey have learned it – this is metacognition. It requires you to ask the right kinds ofquestion and to provide the language structures that pupils need to talk about theirthinking. Plan key questions in advance but be prepared to develop them on thebasis of what you overhear during group work.

• Ensure extended answers. Ask a fair proportion of open questions and usesupplementary prompts such as ‘Go on’, ‘Tell me more about that’ and ‘Explainwhy you think that’, so that you get extended answers.

• Encourage build-up of joint thinking. Encourage pupils to listen to eachother and respond to, criticise, evaluate or disagree with each other: ‘Doesanybody have a different idea/approach/method?’, ‘Do you all agree?’, ‘I knowthat some other groups were thinking differently’. At this point your earlierlistening and watching can pay real dividends as you can invite other groups orindividuals to contribute.

• Summarise thinking and act like a broker for ideas and reasoning, so thatgood thinking is offered to all.

• Focus on the ‘how’. On some occasions focus on how the task has beendone. Identify main patterns and little idiosyncrasies, in terms of both howindividuals thought and the ways in which groups operated.

• Make connections. If at all possible make a connection between the solutionsor the methods and other contexts, so that pupils can see the wider purchaseand application of the emerging learning. The examples in the ‘Bridgingscenarios’ section for the Reading images strategy in task 7 should providesome stimulus.

• Establish generalisations that relate to the five National Curriculum thinkingskills so that they become more visible and transferable in other lessons andcontexts. This is partly achieved through the stories, examples and analogies.



Practical tip

If a group is obviously stuck or asks for your help, get them to identifyspecifically what they are finding difficult, then tell them that you will leavethem to talk it through for two minutes. They should come up with one ortwo ways of overcoming the problem and you will return to help them tochoose the best way or to offer another suggestion. You are encouragingthem to be more self-reliant.

The singular distinctive feature of a thinking skills plenary is that it is not aboutsubject content – the ‘what’ of the lesson. It is exclusively focused on the thinkingskill – the ‘how’ of the lesson.

6 Evaluating impactTo sustain developments in classroom practice you need to get an immediatepositive response from pupils. It isn’t helpful to wait months or years before pupilssit public examinations – we need the evidence of our eyes and other senses toconfirm that we are doing something worthwhile.



Task 10Evaluating successes and weaknesses 30 minutesof lessons

Consider any recent thinking skills lesson. Use the framework on the next pageto analyse the successes and weaknesses of the lesson.

• Start with the successes. Tick any of the successes of the lesson in the‘Evidence of positive outcomes’ boxes.

• Now tick any of the boxes labelled ‘Possible causes of positive outcomes’which you think help explain the successes. Draw arrows between any of theticked causes and ticked successes to indicate a link between them.Annotate the arrows if possible. You may wish to add extra causes andpositive outcomes.

• Then do the same for weaknesses.

Any lesson could have both successes and weaknesses. An advantage of goingthrough this process is that it can identify reasons for lesson outcomes so thatthey can be strengthened further or improved.

Practical tip

Plenaries can founder because pupils are not used to this process. Theyneed some ‘think time’ to rehearse their thoughts. Put two or three questionson the board and tell groups that they have a few minutes to prepareanswers. Make it clear that anyone might be expected to make acontribution.

Task 9Improving the plenary 20 minutes

Choose a suitable thinking skills lesson when pupils are working well in groupsand listen to them talking. Note down some of the things that they say andperhaps what is happening in the group. For example, one person is dominating,a group clarifies or rehearses what they have to do in a task, or someone has agood idea which is ignored. Actually write what you see or hear on paper.

Consider whether any of these observations would be useful in the plenary todraw out good strategies or ideas.

Evaluating thinking skills lessons

Possible causes of Evidence of positive outcomespositive outcomes

Possible causes of Evidence of weaknessesweaknesses



different type of more open activity

a good launch

working in groups

plenary focused onreasoning or

metacognition

unfamiliar,‘threatening’ type

of work

poor social skillsamongst pupils

weak (or no) plenary

uncertain launch

pupils more interested ormotivated

good quality of talk betweenpupils

better behaviour from ‘difficult’ pupils

longer answers in plenary good ideas being generated

pupils seeing connections

pupils slow to start no deep or creative thinking

pupils give up or finish tooeasily/quickly

limited talk within groupspupils don’t talk about their

thinking

pupils off-task

7 ProgressionTeachers who have infused thinking skills within their own subject and/or plannedto coordinate teaching across several subjects have found planning progression achallenge. Five approaches have been developed in the Leading in Learninginitiative.

1 Increasing the difficulty of the task: This might be done by providing moreinformation, introducing conflicting information halfway through an activity, orasking pupils to evaluate as well as create ideas.

2 Reducing the amount of support: The support may have been in the form ofquestioning, modelling, explaining or scaffolding that is available for the task.Reducing support means pupils are expected to work more independently. Thiscan be done by asking them before they start an activity to consider what theyalready know that might be useful in the current task, and to generate a roughplan for tackling it.

3 Increasing the complexity of the group work: This can be done by, forexample, asking pupils to work with those that they don’t normally work with,perhaps in mixed-gender groupings. The richness of the group work and talkcan also be extended by asking pupils to use cue cards. Cue cards arereminders to pupils, printed on card and available on the desk, to try particularbehaviours in talk or thinking, such as ‘Has everyone been asked for their ideasand been listened to?’.

4 Increasing the level of challenge in the plenary: You could ask pupils toreflect more on how tasks have been done and what significance this has. Thiswill make the plenary more metacognitive.

5 Expecting improved performance or attainment.

In summary, you should aim for either an improved individual outcome or animproved group outcome. The significance of the latter is that what the members ofa group may be able to do together this week, an individual from that group maybe able to do next week on their own. That will show that the process or skill hasbeen internalised. This corresponds with the idea of a Zone of ProximalDevelopment, or ZPD, as proposed by the influential Soviet researcher Vygotskywhose work has become very popular in the West recently although he died in the1930s.



Task 11Experimenting with progression 30 minutes

• You could plan to use one of these approaches to progression in aforthcoming thinking skills lesson and evaluate its effect.

And/or:

• You could consider any thinking skills lessons you have taught recently. Whichif any approaches to progression did you use in your planning and teaching?Were these approaches successful?

Thinking words

The table below contains a list of ‘thinking’ words from various Key Stage 3National Curriculum subjects, which represent important skills. Do pupils reallyunderstand these words (which is more than being able to give a rehearseddefinition)? If they understand them at all, do they have depth in thatunderstanding? In relation to evaluation, do pupils know:

• what criteria are?

• that criteria selected should be chosen according to purpose?

• that values influence choice of criteria?

• what prejudice is?

• that criteria can be used in a variety of ways, such as equal weighting, loadedweighting, intuitively?



analyse listen for gist synthesise

identify vary speculate

evaluate organise and present question critically

prioritise skim adapt

select scan practise

clarify summarise improvise

classify explore ideas develop ideas

justify investigate compare

make decisions listen with discrimination weigh viewpoints

explain experiment rehearse

apply rules and make reasoned recognise limitationsconventions judgements of accuracy

infer deduce check

narrow down draw conclusions use logical argument

refine collaborate combine

Summary of research Two research reports provide a backdrop to this booklet. They are From thinkingskills to thinking classrooms: a review and evaluation of approaches for developingpupils’ thinking (McGuinness 1999), which was a DfEE research report, andTeaching thinking skills (Cotton 1991), prepared by one of the major centres forteaching and learning in the USA.

The report by Kathleen Cotton establishes some important contexts.

• Nearly all the thinking skills programmes and practices investigated made apositive difference to achievement levels of students.

• Gains in achievement levels were reported most commonly in relation tocreative and critical thinking skills, and metacognition.

• There was a strong emphasis in the research studies on classroom climate,such as high expectations, teacher ‘warmth’ and encouragement. It is seen asimportant that pupils feel free to explore and express opinions, consideralternative opinions and justify their thoughts and ideas. Moving beyond one’snormal mental habits is risky and needs nurturing.

• The success of a programme depends considerably on ‘implementation’factors such as management support, appropriateness and the extent to whichit is put into operation in the intended manner, so that it is not superficial, partialor cutting corners.

Cotton’s report is from the USA, so it is valuable that the McGuinness report iswritten with the British context in mind. It is important to note that this documentputs greater emphasis on interpretation and recommendations for policy andpractice. Some of the selected findings are given in the table below with somecommentary in relation to effective implementation.



Task 12Selecting thinking words for your subject 30 minutes

Without looking at the National Curriculum programmes of study, your subjectframework or departmental schemes of work – in other words using a ‘gut’response – select about ten ‘thinking’ words from the table that you think areparticularly important in your subject across Key Stages 3 and 4.

If you are working collaboratively, compare your list with colleagues from eitherthe same department or other departments. What have you got in common?

Now select just three of these words which you regard as most important.Identify from your departmental schemes of work how they are taught – are theyexplicit or implicit? They are implicit if pupils are just meant to pick them up alongthe way.

Compare your long list of ten and shortlist of three with the five NationalCurriculum thinking skills. Can you link your thinking words with the five NationalCurriculum thinking skills: Information processing, Reasoning, Enquiry, Creativethinking, and Evaluation?



Selected findings

Raising standards requires thatattention is directed not only on whatis to be learned but also on howchildren learn and how teachersintervene to achieve this.

A successful prototype for developingcurriculum materials was identified:strong theoretical underpinning; well-designed, contextualised materials;explicit pedagogy; teaching supportand programme evaluations.Curriculum materials alone are notsufficient.

There is scope for … moresystematic work within subject areas… to examine commonalities anddifferences between thinking skills asthey are exercised in disciplinarycontexts.

(There are) opportunities forembedding thinking skills across thecurriculum and there are cleararguments in favour of doing this.Nevertheless, the challenges ofadopting an infusion approach shouldnot be underestimated, especially therisk that the thinking skills frameworkmay become trivialised or ‘watereddown’.

Much of the research on the efficacyof teaching thinking was conductedunder optimal learning conditions andproblems with scaling up andtransferring the effects of everydayclassrooms have been identified.

Commentary

This suggests that much greateremphasis be given both todeveloping pupils’ generic capabilityas learners and to developingteachers’ skills in the classroom tomake critical interventions.

Producing training materials or afolder is not sufficient. Teachers needto work together with support,attending to their practice and theirunderstanding of the principles ofteaching thinking. The KS3 Strategy,through its consultants and networks,can provide much of this support.LIG collaboratives also provide anappropriate infrastructure.

This highlights the incalculablepractical value of cross-subjectcollaborative work within schools.

There is a strong echo here of thewarning in Cotton’s work about theimportance of implementationfactors. There is a tendency for someschools to say ‘We are doing thinkingskills’. One of the characteristics ofschools that are implementingrigorously is that they know howmuch there is still to do and learn,especially in relation to managingdiscussion and developingmetacognition and transfer.

One of the aspects of implementationis how an institution embeds itssuccesses. Great attention needs tobe given to sharing practice,inducting new members of staff andrefining schemes of work to reflectprogress.

Table continues

Thinking skills frameworks for post-16 learners: an evaluation (Moseley et al. 2003),although focused on post-compulsory education, reviewed evidence relating towider age groups. This report recognised from the research evidence that:

If learners are to benefit from thinking skills approaches they need todevelop a deeper understanding of learning and instruction and appreciatethe value of thinking skills in daily life.

To do this for Key Stage 3 and 4 pupils means that teachers must help them toblur the sharp boundaries between school and other aspects of their lives.

References

• Cotton, K. (1991) Teaching thinking skills. School Improvement ResearchSeries, North West Regional Educational Laboratory(www.nwrel.org/scpd/sirs/6/cu11.html).

• McGuinness, C. (1999) From thinking skills to thinking classrooms: a review andevaluation of approaches for developing pupils’ thinking. DfEE research reportRR115.

• Moseley, D. et al. (2003) Thinking skills frameworks for post-16 learners: anevaluation. Research report to the LSDA, University of Newcastle and Universityof Sunderland.

• www.standards.gov.uk (and select thinking skills).

Next stepsThis unit has explored an aspect of teaching and learning. You may wish to developyour ideas further, to consolidate, apply ideas in different contexts or explore anaspect in more depth and innovate.

Reflect

What have been the key learning points for you?

What has been the impact on pupils?

Here are some suggestions as to how you may develop practice further:



… the idea of thinking classrooms,and schools as thinking communities,requires further articulation andinterpretation …. Neverthelessthinking classrooms brings thinkingskills analysis the full circle and linkswith emerging research on schoolethos.

There is the need for a shift in mind-set to make ‘thinking’ an establishedfeature of schools. To encouragepupils to be more autonomous, wayshave to be found for giving themmore choice and control, not only inmanaging their own learning but alsoin contributing to schooldevelopment. Likewise, to developpupils as learners schools need tocreate the conditions for staff to thinkand learn.

• Continue working with your own class, using learning logs to help pupils tobecome more reflective about their learning. Evaluate the impact of using thelogs by reviewing a sample of the logs after a period of time and interviewingone or two pupils.

• Enlist the help of a TA or student mentor (e.g. from the sixth form) to assist withquestioning particular groups of pupils or to eavesdrop on group discussionsand record points to feed back to you.

• Work with a colleague in another department who teaches the same class asyou. Choose a relevant thinking skill and plan lessons in both subjects todevelop that skill explicitly. If possible, observe each other’s lessons. Meetbetween the lessons to review progress and identify points for the secondlesson. Meet afterwards to assess the impact of your lessons.

• Find out about local support networks of teachers developing thinking skills, asa way of sharing developments and extending your practice.

For further reading the following publications are recommended:

• Baumfield, V. (2002) Thinking through religious education. Chris KingtonPublishing. ISBN: 189985746X.

• Claxton, G. (1999) Wise-up – the challenge of lifelong learning. Bloomsbury.ISBN: 1582340927.

• DfES (2002) Training materials for the foundation subjects. Ref. DfES0350/2002.

• Dweck, C. (2000) Self-theories – their role in motivation, personality anddevelopment. Psychology Press. ISBN: 1841690244.

• Fisher, P. (2002) Thinking through history. Chris Kington Publishing. ISBN:1899857443.

• Leat, D. (ed) (1998) Thinking through geography. Chris Kington Publishing.ISBN: 1899857990.

• Lin, M. and Mackay, C. (2004) Thinking through modern foreign languages.Chris Kington Publishing. ISBN: 1899857958.

• Nichols, A. (ed) (2001) More thinking through geography. Chris KingtonPublishing. ISBN: 1899857435.

• Resnick, L. (1987) Education and learning to think. National Academy Press.ISBN: 0309037859.

• Shayer, M. and Adey, P. (eds) (2002) Learning intelligence. Open UniversityPress. ISBN: 0335211364.

• Shayer, M. and Gamble, R. (2001) Bridging from CASE to core science. TheAssociation for Science Education, Black Bear Press. ISBN: 0863573322.



Setting future targetsHaving considered your next steps, you may wish to set yourself some personaltargets to support your own continuing professional development. You could usethese ideas to inform your performance management discussion.

•

•

•



Task 13Setting your targets 40 minutes

When setting targets for the future you may want to discuss the possibilities witha colleague or your line manager.

Whatever you decide to do, you will need to consider the following.

• What are your objectives for the next year?

• What are the expected outcomes in terms of pupils’ achievements?

• What strategies will you employ to achieve these outcomes?

• How will you track progress over the year?

• How will you know whether you have been successful or not?

Guidance

Curriculum andStandards

Senior leaders,subject leaders and teachers insecondary schoolsStatus: Recommended

Date of issue: 09-2004

Ref: DfES 0439-2004 G

Cam

bridge University P

ress 09-2004

Cre

atin

g e

ffec

tive

lear

ners

Copies of this document may be available from:

DfES Publications Tel: 0845 60 222 60Fax: 0845 60 333 60Textphone: 0845 60 555 60e-mail: [email protected]

Ref: DfES 0439-2004 G

© Crown copyright 2004

Produced by the Department for Education and Skills

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